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Flowers in boxes in Madrid: wet foam, no vase, a shape for each recipient
A July afternoon at Madrid's Retiro weather station averages 32.8 °C at 39% humidity, a stretch covered in Madrid's dry July, and flowers in boxes in Madrid already stand with their stems in wet floral foam, so the gift never waits for a vase. What is left to decide is what sits under the lid, and how the box travels on from there.
Which flowers fill a box in Madrid, and the one left out
Under the lid, roses lead: Ecuadorian stems with large heads, and French roses, where a florist turns back the outer petals by hand rather than growing a separate variety. Jumilia is one such rose, a bloom up to seven centimetres across with a white base and a pink-edged petal, and it gives its name to a box such as fifteen Jumilia French Roses.
For a box without roses, lilies, hydrangea and lisianthus can fill the same wet foam and travel just as well. Spain brings in most of its cut flowers and plants from the Netherlands, Colombia and Ecuador, and once a shipment reaches the region it is the Mercado de Floristas inside Mercamadrid that sends it on to the city's florists.
One flower rarely turns up in a gift box here. Chrysanthemums are linked in Spain to 1 November, when they are carried to cemeteries, so most people would not expect to find one wrapped as a present.
A lid to lift at home or handles for a day out: hat box or handbag
A hat box is carried with both hands, or balanced in the crook of one arm, and its lid usually comes off wherever the box is handed over. That makes it the better match for a recipient who is staying put, at home or at a desk, for the rest of the day.
A flower handbag works differently. Its handles let the recipient carry it on, the way they would carry any bag, through a lobby, onto a train, into a restaurant, which suits someone whose day continues past the moment the flowers arrive.
In an office with access control, reception may take the box first, and the sender still hears back who signed for it before it reaches the actual desk.
Jute, a crate or macarons when the box is meant to stay
A composition in a jute pot is meant to stand exactly where it lands, on a table or a windowsill, and a crate or hanging basket works the same way: set down or hung up once, then left there. Neither is built with carrying in mind.
A box of macarons can travel alongside the flowers as one gift, better suited to a visit or a table laid for the occasion than to a bouquet handed over on a doorstep and carried off somewhere else.
Spain's Día de la Madre falls on the first Sunday of May.
Flower box delivery in Madrid, checked by photo before it leaves
Flowers in boxes in Madrid are put together to order, and the florist photographs the finished box before the courier sets off, so a colour or a flower can still be swapped on request before it leaves the workshop.
Delivery across the centre is free; every other zone carries a fixed charge shown on screen before payment goes through, and most orders reach the recipient on the day they were placed, with the current delivery time shown on the product card. Zones and charges are set out on the delivery page.
With no address to hand, a phone number for the recipient is enough to get the order moving. A hotel box goes up to the room or stays at reception, whichever the hotel allows, as long as the guest's surname travels with the order.
Choosing where to start with flowers in boxes in Madrid depends mostly on where the gift travels next. A hat box suits someone staying in one place, a flower handbag suits someone heading out again, and macarons in a box add something sweet alongside the flowers.